Generally, in a vehicle assembly process, a wheel is assembled by fitting a wheel over a wheel assembly of a vehicle body that is moved on a shuttle and by coupling wheel nuts to the wheel assembly.
During the above process, workers use a tool, which is called a nut runner, to facilitate the process of coupling the wheel nuts to each wheel.
Workers must identify the kind of vehicle moving along the assembly line, select wheel nuts suitable for particular kinds of vehicle, and insert the selected wheel nuts into respective sockets of the nut runner.
In the conventional process of coupling the wheel nuts, however, workers must pay careful attention to correctly identify particular kinds of vehicle moving along the assembly line on the shuttle. In addition, excessive time is required to conduct preparation work of selecting wheel nuts corresponding to particular kinds of vehicle and inserting the wheel nuts into the respective sockets of the nut runner, thereby increasing the overall processing time. Also, workers may mistakenly couple incorrect kinds of wheel nuts to a vehicle.
There is thus a need for an improved tool that can mount wheel nuts to vehicles in a shortened time and a reliable manner.